Israel's Labor Party Votes for Leader

Published 6:00 pm, Monday, November 18, 2002

JERUSALEM (AP) _ Israel's Labor Party voted for a new leader Tuesday, and the front-runner promised to dismantle Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip immediately if he becomes prime minister.

General elections are set for Jan. 28, and polls indicate Labor will be defeated by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party.

In Tuesday's Labor vote, polls suggest Amram Mitzna, the mayor of the port city of Haifa, will comfortably defeat the current Labor leader, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who served as defense minister in a national unity government with Sharon.

The third candidate, legislator Haim Ramon, is trailing far behind.

About 150,000 registered Labor members are eligible to vote. A second round will be held in December if neither candidate wins more than 40 percent.

In a survey of 500 party members published in the Maariv daily on Monday, Mitzna led Ben-Eliezer by 56 percent to 25 percent, with Ramon at 6 percent. The poll had a margin of error of 4.5 percent.

Another poll of 503 Labor members published in Yediot Ahronot on the same day, with the same margin of error, gave Mitzna 52 percent and Ben-Eliezer 29 percent.

The collapse of peace talks championed by Labor and more than two years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting have pulled the Israeli public to the right, and opinion polls predict Sharon's Likud party will reap the benefits in the general election.

Sharon, who is in a tight race with Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Likud leadership, called an early election at the beginning of the month after Labor, his largest coalition partner, left in a row over funding for Jewish settlements.

On Tuesday, Mitzna said for the first time that, if elected, he would dismantle all Jewish settlements in Gaza, without waiting for negotiations with the Palestinians. Mitzna made the promise in an interview with the Haaretz daily.

Mitzna has also said he will resume talks with the Palestinians without condition.

Ben-Eliezer, whose image has been tarnished among left-wing voters due to his 20-month alliance with Sharon, called on Labor to provide voters with a "real alternative to the existing situation."